1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an order information recording medium used in the case where printing of a processed image using a template is ordered to a network photographic service system which provides a photographic service utilizing a plurality it of server computers distributed on a network, and to an order file generating apparatus for generating an order file to be recorded in the recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
A digital photographic service using the Internet has become available recently. According to this service, if digitization and storage of images are ordered at the time a film is deposited for developing, for example, the photographs recorded on the film are disclosed on the Internet only to the orderer. Therefore, the orderer can order additional printing or the like without going to a service provider by referring to the disclosed photographs on a personal computer connected to the network.
Meanwhile, a service has been carried out for a long time wherein a new year's greeting postcard including a photograph therein is generated by using a template comprising a character string and an illustration for new year's greeting and a blank area for inserting the photograph therein. In such a service, available templates are shown at a counter in a laboratory or the like, and by using the template selected by a user, an operator of the laboratory carries out the processing. However, in a digital photographic service such as that described above, a preferred method is to provide the template itself to a user as digital data and for the user to carry out processing by himself/herself, and only print output is carried out in a laboratory.
In order to generate a high quality photographic print, high resolution image data are necessary. Therefore, when a user carries out processing as in the above, the user carries out the processing by obtaining high resolution image data and a high resolution template and an order is placed from the laboratory by providing the processed image data at high resolution.
However, having high resolution means having a large data size. Therefore, a large capacity recording medium or a high-speed network is necessary to provide a template from a laboratory to a user or to provide a processed image from a user to a laboratory. As a result, a load on data transfer has been heavy.
Furthermore, there has been a request that high performance templates including complex processing procedures or templates including illustrations of famous characters or the like should be chargeable on a usage basis or provided with limited usage. However, in a conventional service, usage of a template once it has been provided to a user has not been restricted.